


Coffee For Your Pain

by fansbyproducts (sisaat)



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Carlos is worried, Cecil is Not Okay, Existential Terror, M/M, Protective Carlos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-27
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-19 00:04:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 580
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2366900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sisaat/pseuds/fansbyproducts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Night Vale is a terrifying place to live and listening to Cecil's unflappable retelling of events on the radio helps Carlos stay sane. But every now and then, he's reminded that the radio host isn't as unaffected as he sounds.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coffee For Your Pain

Carlos loves listening to Cecil on the radio while he works. He’s a bit less fond of his fellow scientists snickers or cooing sounds when they notice the silly smile that tend to find its way on his face, but he learned to deal with it. When the lab is filled with so much unexplainable crazy, the casual, unflappable way Cecil talks about many of the very phenomenons they are studying helps makes them seem a bit more normal. A bit less scary.

 Most of the time, at least. There are times when his voice turns deep and ominous, making things that should have been mundanes, like the sky, seem more terrifying then Carlos could have ever believed possible before he came to Night Vale. But these pass quickly and Cecil’s calming voice as he turns to other matters pushes his fears away. Other things aren’t so easy to dismiss.

"We are pleased to announce that the hovering shrubbery that has been roaming Night Vale’s street and assaulting citizens’ minds has finally been dealt with by the Sheriff’s Secret Police, using a combination of herbicide, flamethrowers and goats, leaving our minds assaulted only with the comfortingly familiar terror and agony of existence."

It’s statements like this that upset Carlos most. When Cecil’s broadcast casually reminds him that the radio host hasn’t survived so long in Night Vale unbroken, that just because he rationalize the horror as normal doesn’t mean he’s unaffected. When Cecil mentions, as if it’s the most natural thing in the world, the existential terror that comes with simply living here, the nights spent huddled at home, all alone and frightened, or, most horrifying of all, the wish to end it all.

Carlos feels more than a little helpless. He wants to be with Cecil right now. To hold him and maybe stroke his hair in a vain attempt to soothe the pain away. He wipes some strange goo off his hands, fumbles for his phone, and waits impatiently for a commercial break.

"Hello?" Cecil answers, his usually smooth voice lilting with barely contained glee.

"Hey, it’s Carlos," the scientist says, but of course Cecil knows that. He has caller ID, even if he acts like he doesn’t. "I’m calling for personal reasons."

"Oh?"

"It’s a slow day at the lab. Not much to do. " An instrument beeps insistently, maybe offended by his blatant lie and wanting to remind him of how much there is to do. Carlos ignored it. "I think I’ll leave early. Maybe you could come over for coffee, when you’re done at the station?"

"Ooooh, a date?"

"Yes. Yes, a date. If you want. You could…" he trailed off. He wanted to say ‘you could stay the night’, but he didn’t want to sound too forward and besides, his fellow scientists had stopped what they were doing to listen in on his conversation. "You could have some coffee. I brew good coffee. It’s basic chemistry, really."

"I would love to come for coffee. I’m sure your coffee is perfect. I have to go back to the show now, but I’ll see you later, Carlos."

"I’ll be waiting."

They hang up and Cecil goes back on air to tell his listeners that beautiful, _perfect_ Carlos just called and invited him for coffee. The scientist grins, not caring what anyone present thought. Cecil sounds so happy. Just because Carlos called. If he can, Carlos will put himself between existential terror and Cecil and  _keep_ him happy.

**Author's Note:**

> This was my first Welcome to Night Vale fanfiction, reposted from tumblr.


End file.
